STATEMENT BY USDA UNDER SECRETARY FOR FOOD SAFETY DR. RICHARD RAYMOND ONSUSPENSION OF INSPECTION AT HALLMARK/WESTLAND MEAT PACKING COMPANY

February 5, 2008

Corrected: Name of company

"On Feb. 4, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) suspendedinspection at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company based on theestablishment's clear violation of Federal regulations and the HumaneMethods of Slaughter Act. This Notice of Suspension is a regulatory courseof action available when FSIS finds egregious violations of humane handlingregulations.

At the time allegations were revealed on Jan. 30, the Hallmark/Westland MeatPacking Company voluntarily stopped operations on Feb. 1. The USDAsuspension will remain in effect and the Hallmark/Westland Meat PackingCompany will not be allowed to operate until written corrective actions aresubmitted and verified by FSIS to ensure that animals are humanely handled.

An important point needs the public's attention: On Jan. 30, USDA placed anadministrative hold on all Westland Meat Packing Company products because ofpotential violations of regulatory requirements and contractual terms as asupplier of products to the Federal food and nutrition programs.

USDA at the time of the hold also indefinitely suspended the eligibility ofWestland Meat Packing Company to participate as a supplier to Federal foodand nutrition programs, specifically the National School Lunch Program, theEmergency Food Assistance Program and the Food Distribution Program onIndian Reservations.

On Jan. 30, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer called upon the Office of theInspector General to work with FSIS and the USDA's Agricultural MarketingService to conduct an investigation into allegations of inhumane handling ofnon-ambulatory disabled cattle at Westland Meat Packing Company. Theseallegations were made by the Humane Society of the United States againstWestland Meat Company.

We maintain an inspection system that safeguards the safety andwholesomeness of our food supply. USDA will take appropriate action based onthe findings of the investigation."

In addition, on December 30, 2003, Agriculture Secretary Ann Venemanannounced new policies that would further strengthen an existing solid foodsafety system against BSE. On that date, an immediate ban was enacted toprevent all non-ambulatory disabled cattle from being used in the human foodsupply. This group contains the HIGHEST risk population of cattle thatcould possibly have BSE. However, even before this ban, FSIS inspectors atslaughterhouses were condemning all cattle they suspected of showing centralnervous system disorders.

United States for signs of central nervous system impairment. All animalsexhibiting neurological signs during this inspection are condemned, and themeat is not permitted for use as human food. The brains from these animalsare submitted to USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories foranalysis. (The cow implicated in the recent case was not considered to beshowing signs consistent with neurological disease, but was originallydiagnosed with a traumatic injury as a result of a difficult calving). • Infiscal year 2002, USDA tested 19,990 cattle for BSE using a targetedsurveillance approach designed to test the highest risk animals, includingdowner animals (animals that are non-ambulatory at slaughter), animals thatdie on the farm, older animals and animals exhibiting signs of neurologicaldistress.

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/1808/12778.pdf

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Ongoing Surveillance Plan

July 20, 2006

Study (Targeted) Population

Ongoing Surveillance will target subpopulations from the EnhancedSurveillancepopulation with the highest probability of BSE detection. Because BSE isexceedinglyuncommon among U.S. cattle, the chosen targeted population will createintentional biasin the sample frame which favors detection of disease. Cattle that are deadwith unknownclinical history will be limited in the surveillance sampling strategybecause they providesubstantially less information than animals accompanied by clinical history.As used inthis Ongoing Surveillance plan, “dead with unknown clinical history” refersto cattle thatare already dead prior to being presented for BSE sample collection and thathave noknown clinical history other than “dead of unknown cause.” Efforts forcollectingclinical history data will be augmented for Ongoing Surveillance. At leastone clinicalsign must be identified for each sampled animal. Apparently healthy animalswill not betargeted for surveillance. For those cattle without obvious CNS signs,sample collectionon-farm will be preferred over other collection sites because the subtle andnonspecificnature of behavioral changes associated with BSE are best identified bythose who handlecattle on a daily basis,2 and personnel on-farm are most suitable forproviding thisinformation.

The targeted population for Ongoing Surveillance consists of cattle of anybreed that fitone of the following clinical presentation criteria:

1. Cattle of any age with CNS signs

This category includes cattle exhibiting signs consistent with a centralnervoussystem disorder (including rabies-negative cases from public healthlaboratories,and FSIS condemns for “CNS signs” or “rabies”).

2. Cattle = 30 months of ageb that are condemned during antemorteminspectionor are excluded from slaughter due to poor health status (nonambulatory,unhealthy, or dead)

This category includes:

a) Cattle that are condemned by FSIS at antemortem inspection for anyreason (other than “CNS signs” or “rabies,” which are covered aboveunder “Cattle of any age with CNS signs”).

b) Cattle without a history of CNS signs for which sample collection occurson-farm, at veterinary clinics, or at livestock sale or auction barns andthatare dead, nonambulatory, or have clinical signs that may be associatedwith BSE. For those cattle that are dead prior to arrival of samplingb Age of 30 months or older is evidenced by the eruption of at least one ofthe second set of permanent incisors.

8personnel on-farm, additional clinical history must be available other than“dead of unknown cause.”

c) Cattle presented to veterinary diagnostic laboratories for necropsy orforancillary diagnostics without a history of CNS signs but which had clinicalsigns that may be associated with BSE.

d) Cattle from renderers or 3D/4D facilities (up to a maximum of 5,000) thatare dead, nonambulatory, or sick. Collection of clinical history ispreferable for these samples but is not required.

The Enhanced Surveillance data provide information on the number of clinicalsuspectsand the number of nonambulatory, unhealthy, or dead animals over 30 monthsclassifiedby collection site.9 We expect that collection sites yielding the highestproportion ofclinical suspects relative to the number of animals sampled will continue todo so.Accordingly, because renderers and 3D/4D facilities produced the mostsamples butproportionately the fewest clinical suspects in the Enhanced Surveillanceprogram, wewill limit samples from these facilities to 5,000 animals.